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Two materials -a mesoporous silica (MS) and a periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) functionalized with dipyridyl-pyridazine (dppz) units were grafted with near-infrared (NIR) emitting lanthanide (Nd ) complexes in an attempt to obtain hybrid NIR emitting materials. The parent materials: dppzvSilica and dppz-ePMO were prepared by a hetero Diels-Alder reaction between 3,6-di(2-pyridyl)-1,2,4,5-tetrazine (dptz) and the double bonds of either ethenylene-bridged PMO (ePMO) or vinyl-silica (vSilica) and subsequent oxidation. The dppz-vSilica is reported here for the first time. The prepared lanthanide-PMO/silica hybrid materials were studied in depth for their luminescence properties at room temperature and chosen Nd 3+ and Yb 3+ samples also at low temperature (as low as 10 K). We show that both the dppz-vSilica and dppz-ePMO materials can be used as "platforms" for obtaining porous materials showing NIR luminescence. To obtain NIR emission these materials can be excited either in the UV or Vis region (into the π → π* transitions of the ligands or directly into the f-f transitions of the Ln 3+ ions). More interestingly, when functionalized with Nd 3+ or Yb 3+ β-diketonate complexes these materials showed interesting luminescence properties over a wide temperature range (10-360 K). The Yb 3+ materials were investigated for their potential use as ratiometric temperature sensors.

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Highly ordered thiol-ethylene bridged Periodic Mesoporous Organosilicas were synthesized directly from a homemade thiol-functionalized bis-silane precursor. These high surface area materials contain up to 4.3mmol/g sulfur functions in the walls and can adsorb up to 1183mg/g mercury ions. Raman spectroscopy reveals the existence of thiol and disulfide moieties. These groups have been evaluated by a combination of Raman spectroscopy, Ellman's reagent and elemental analysis. The adsorption of mercury ions was evidenced by different techniques, including Raman, XPS and porosimetry, which indicate that thiol groups are highly accessible to mercury. Scanning transmission electron microscopy combined with EDX showed an even homogenous distribution of the sulfur atoms throughout the structure, and have revealed for the first time that a fraction of the adsorbed mercury is forming thiolate nanocrystals in the pores. The adsorbent is highly selective for mercury and can be regenerated and reused multiple times, maintaining its structure and functionalities and showing only a marginal loss of adsorption capacity after several runs.